


Boys and Girls

by aliencereal



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: M/M, Male!Runner Five, season one spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-10
Updated: 2014-02-10
Packaged: 2018-01-11 20:18:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1177481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliencereal/pseuds/aliencereal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam Yao has loved two Runner Fives.  This one isn't much like the last one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boys and Girls

Sam Yao has loved two Runner Fives, but he’s pretty sure the two of them couldn’t possibly be more different.

Alice had been a beautiful young woman, a year younger than him, who talked almost as much as Sam did and carried candy on her at all times. She’d been funny and easy to like.

The new Runner Five is, to start with, a man. That should be the biggest difference, but Sam honestly thinks Five could have been Alice’s identical twin and nobody would ever have confused the two. He is silent over the radio, and nearly so in person. He watches and listens instead of talking, and Sam rarely sees him smile or laugh.

Sam knew neither of them before the outbreak, and he suspects he’ll never get too many details about either of them. Alice is dead, and the new Five has gone as far as asking people not to use his actual name. Sam had talked to Maxine about that, wondering if that could really be healthy, and she’d softly told him that some people don’t like to be reminded of who they used to be.

Sam had befriended Alice within hours of her arrival in Abel, immediately charmed by her wit and smile.

It isn’t until Sam guides Five through a night in hell that the runner says more than 10 words to him at a time.

Sometimes, Sam wonders if the two runners would have gotten along. Alice would have gotten a good laugh out of Five’s sports bra thing, at the very least. The one and only time Sam has seen Five blush was when he’d explained that he’s _gay_ , he has no idea how many bras a woman needs, after Jack and Eugene had teased him a little bit too long. Maybe Sam had blushed too, but not because of the bras.

It really should matter that Five is a man. Sam doesn’t typically _fancy_ men. He likes soft breasts and slender legs and just. _Girls_. It’s strange and foreign for him to find Five appealing when he comes up to visit the comms shack after a workout, shirtless and flushed and trying to talk to Sam about his damn schedule. Quiet, serious and male has never really been Sam’s type.

Alice, on the other hand, had been exactly his type. He’d never had a sense of deep seated confusion when he flirted with _her_. 

But the longer he gets to know the new Five, the more he realizes that, yes, there is something there that suits him perfectly. He’s so completely unlike anyone Sam has fancied, before or after the outbreak, that is takes a while to really sift out what it is that’s appealing about him.

Five is impossibly more gentle than Sam could have imagined, when he’d first met him. The man is _6’2”_ and built a little like an athletic truck, but he holds Molly like something precious, talks softly with Maxine after the message from Paula, and there isn’t a hint of mockery when he delivers the D &D supplies. Maybe there’s some value to Five’s near silence— he has no words to trip over, no cluttering of ‘said the wrong thing’ to interfere with being an ear for anyone who needs him. Sam’s fairly certain Jody has poured out every secret she’s ever had to her fellow runner within the first month of their friendship.

There’s also an intense, all-consuming loyalty to him. He never breathes a word of anything anyone’s told him in confidence, takes on extra runs to gather supplies for Abel, and volunteers to pretend to be Lem, risks be damned, without a second thought. Sam suspects that Five might love Abel more than any other runner does.

So, when Sam finds his friend in the aftermath of the rocket launcher, he expects to find Five distraught, maybe even quieter than usual. And he does find this, just not at all in the way he expected it.

The Major has finally let Five out of debriefing, and Sam is waiting, standing slightly down the hallway. He hasn’t been anywhere except Abel in months, and New Canton’s walls might as well have been a prison for how uncomfortable he feels in them. There’s a darkness to Five’s expression, but it melts when he makes eye contact with Sam.

“Hey Five,” Sam’s voice comes out rough and tired, and he hopes that he’ll be able to sleep soon, whenever they decide where they’re putting the refugees. He doesn’t expect the reaction.

Five freezes, his mouth dropping open. Sam can watch as Five takes in all of him, from head to foot, before he bolts across the room. The choked sob the runner makes sounds too loud in the quiet hallway, and then they’re hugging. Sam is bewildered, because Five is hardly a physical person, but now he’s holding onto him like a lifeline, like if he lets go, Sam will slip away, never to be seen again. And he’s _crying_ , really crying, the kind where you can’t breathe and everyone knows.

For once, it’s Sam who stays silent, and Five who talks.

“I thought you were _dead_!” Five’s voice is small and fragile, and this is all so strange that Sam wonders if he’s dreaming. But that really wouldn’t make sense, because he burned his side in the chaos earlier, and it hurts like hell as Five holds him close.

Sam finds that he doesn’t mind the pain, because before he can formulate a response, Five is kissing him, with a kind of frantic desperation that almost scares him. He shouldn’t kiss back, shouldn’t take advantage of the emotional high his friend is running off, but he can’t help it. Sam finds himself just holding on, at least until Five pulls back, panting and red-eyed and wildly searching Sam’s face for _something_.

“Tell me you’re okay. _Talk to me_ , Sam, come on, I couldn’t hear you and I thought—“ Five’s voice breaks and he stops meeting Sam’s eyes, and Sam understands.

“Aw, I’m tougher than that, don’t you think? Takes more than a major explosion to get rid of a truly talented radio operator.”

That gets the response Sam was looking for, a little sob-laugh and a shaky, but genuine, smile.

“God, Sam, I fucking love you, don’t make losing you a joke,” Five drops his head onto Sam’s shoulder, and there’s two firsts at once, a swear and a love confession.

“You laughed,” Sam’s voice is shaky, because his heart is going a mile a minute and he feels like he’s going to throw up, because this is happening, he’s kissed another Runner Five and it felt just as right as the first time.

“I’m just happy to see you,” Five whispers, face still hidden and arms still wrapped tightly around Sam.

In spite of everything, Sam finds that the feeling is mutual.


End file.
